MIT + Please Contribute License
Written on October 21, 2009 – 10:30 pm | by admin
We all love open source. Most of the tools I use and platforms I develop on are part of some open source initiative. With that said I think that many people are missing the point and coming to the table with unreasonable and sometimes arrogant expectations of OS maintainers.
Last week I was lurking in irc in a channel devoted to a project that one of my business partners maintains. A new user popped in to ask a question about whether or not a certain feature was going to be included. My friend responded that it was very low on his list of priorities and that he was going to try to add that specific feature in a future release but that it was unlikely to happen soon. This leech replied with a snide remark ending with a statement along the lines of "I guess your project is low on my list of priorities then". What did he expect? My friend should drop everything to implement this feature that he doesn't need just because someone asked for it? This person is missing the point. OS projects start out because someone has an itch to scratch. They release it when they think it may scratch someone else's itch and they allow others to contribute so that the project can grow to fit the needs of others. The bottom line is that anyone who shows up complaining arrogantly that an OS project is not adding a specific feature is way out of line and in my opinion doesn't deserve the rights to use the project in the first place.
It is for this reason that I submit a new licensing modifier. You would apply this to whatever your standard OS license is but you would append the "Please Contribute" clause. This would state that the cost of unlimited use and redistribution of the source is that you have to do something to help the project grow. This could include but not be limited to blogging about it, submitting a patch or a well documented bug report or helping others learn about the project. All of these things can be demonstrated or documented and advertising this licensing style may help people understand that a consumer of an OS library is not a 'client' of the maintainer. If you think the project is cool enough to be used in your application or work environment but think it is missing features than you should contribute.
(( you.goya && you.contribute) || you.stfu) == true).
